E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Sacked at last!
WHEN he failed to gracefully bow out of office in the face of grave allegations of moral turpitude, the Punjab Government had no choice but to sack Mr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia as Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, on Monday. What is surprising is not the manner in which he was unceremoniously removed from the prestigious position, but the time the state government took in taking such a crucial decision. There are wheels within wheels. This is how the government machinery works.

Riots and ratings
THE economic fallout of the continuing communal killings and arson in Gujarat may be awesome. The impression is based on not only newspaper reports but also the calculations of those who matter in economics and business. The sufferer will not be the unfortunate state alone. India as a whole is going to bear the brunt.

OPINION

The national security syndrome
A close look at the Indian ethos
R. S. Grewal
MARTIN Zuberi, while writing in the USI Journal (July-September 1999), makes a statement that the first nuclear weapon powers accumulated nuclear stockpiles before enunciating their nuclear doctrines. However, reversing this process, the Indian National Security Advisory Board has produced a consensus document even before the development of an Indian nuclear force. What he does not mention is that the proposed Indian nuclear doctrine has emerged even before the formulation of an Indian national security doctrine.

MIDDLE

Thirtyfirst March academics
N. K. Oberoi
IN the month of March, the universities are suddenly abuzz with intellectual activity. The buzz is of the seminars which become national or international depending on who is going to deliver the keynote address, inaugurate or preside (It should not surprise you if you do not find a seminar which describes itself as local). What is your status as a celebrity in academia is decided by which of the above-mentioned roles you are invited to perform.

REALPOLITIK

Falling masks, failing tasks
P. Raman
THE National capital is in the thick of the worst kind of power play. Everyone who considers himself or herself as somebody claims to be a crisis manager or facilitator. You only have to send word to the right quarters about your ability for the mission. Everyone claims to know everything and yet no one seems to know what is really happening.

Of suicide, snakes & ‘An Unfinished Autobiography’
FOR days she lived in a room with an invisible snake, petrified by its slithering sounds at night. “Often at midnight, I started up from sleep at the sound of something pulling lengthwise, like a heavy rope,” writes Indian author Indira Goswami in “An Unfinished Autobiography”, an English-translation of her original in Assamese.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Want a boy? Don’t smoke
Couples wanting to conceive a boy should not smoke, scientists say. New research reported by Japanese and Danish scientists in the Lancet medical journal today showed that couples who smoked around the time their child was conceived were less likely to have a son.

• Women look fatter on TV

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Sacked at last!

WHEN he failed to gracefully bow out of office in the face of grave allegations of moral turpitude, the Punjab Government had no choice but to sack Mr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia as Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, on Monday. What is surprising is not the manner in which he was unceremoniously removed from the prestigious position, but the time the state government took in taking such a crucial decision. There are wheels within wheels. This is how the government machinery works. This explains how Mr Ahluwalia could maintain defiant postures in the wake of sharp public and academic anger against his unseeming behaviour because of the support from his political patrons even in the present government. In the normal course, we would have stood firmly against such dismissal for the sake of maintaining academic freedom. But when the whole academic atmosphere is fouled by the very person at the helm, his case becomes totally indefensible. We cannot even shed crocodile tears for Mr Ahluwalia's inglorious exit. He deserved the boot, notwithstanding the fact that his term as Vice-Chancellor was to end by May 15. In the vicious campus atmosphere, a symbolic act was very much needed to convey the message that those holding high offices of public trust are expected not only to be clean and honourable but also seen to be so. All that we can say for the present is: thank you Capt Amarinder Singh for small mercies despite the pressures and counter-pressures at play.

Mr N.S. Rattan, Education Secretary, has now taken over as acting Vice-Chancellor. In normal circumstances, one would not relish planting a non-academician on an institution of higher learning, but then this is all provided in the Act governing Punjabi University. As such, the government has acted within the law. However, the problem arises when key academic appointments and decisions reflect political considerations. This is the bane of education in the country. Everything has got politicised with the result that several universities today have become hotbeds of politics and intrigues. What a pity! This poses a major threat to academic freedom on the campus. The larger issue must be discussed objectively and dispassionately by all those who have stakes in uplifting the academic standards in the country. Personal integrity and commitment to excellence and healthy growth of the institution have to be the essential prerequisites while selecting a successor to Mr Ahluwalia. If the state authorities are able to get the right person for this coveted position, they will be doing a yeoman's service to the cause of education in Punjab. There are no ifs and buts. We expect the decision-makers to be honest to the people and the cause of education. As it is, Punjab is facing a bigger crisis in its Public Service Commission following the disturbing fallout of what is known as L'affaire Ravi Sidhu.

Education is a sacred matter of public trust. We owe it to the people to give them quality education and a clean academic environment. The state leaders, therefore, must decide every move not on the basis of money and muscle power or political considerations but on merit. It is gratifying that the entire academic world, especially those associated with Punjabi University, showed considerable guts and courage to call a spade a spade. More than anything else, the victory in the Ahluwalia case really belongs to them. Fairplay and fearlessness in matters of public importance alone can help us keep our hopes alive for a cleaner and brighter academic environment on university campuses.

Riots and ratings

THE economic fallout of the continuing communal killings and arson in Gujarat may be awesome. The impression is based on not only newspaper reports but also the calculations of those who matter in economics and business. The sufferer will not be the unfortunate state alone. India as a whole is going to bear the brunt. The three agencies involved in the international credit rating of India — Fitch Ratings, Standard and Poor's and Moody's-— have expressed serious concern over what has been happening in the country for over 50 days, after the Godhra disaster. India's rating was already at the "sub-investment" level. Rising social tensions and the resultant political instability, as the agencies see it, may take it further down. A leading economic daily has quoted a top official of Standard and Poor's to say that the agency's study of India will be based on the disturbing activities in the corridors of power and "the macro-economic impact, fiscal impact and the impact of the events on the external balance of payments position". And every word coming from these global organisations affects funds flow to India. As former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh warned the other day, the coming few months would show the Gujarat incidents' dampening effect on the FDI (foreign direct investment) position.

The emerging scenario within the traumatised state — Gujarat — may be more depressing. Major investors consider it as a "volatile state" and may shy away in future. Having suffered enormously in the wake of natural and man-made calamities, they may think twice, thrice before putting their funds at great risk. It is for the first time that the marauding mobs targeted industrial areas too — in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Godhra, Halol, Kalol, Viramgam, Petlad, Pandesara, Vapi, Ankleshwar, Bharuch, Surat, etc. The victimised sectors include automobiles, chemicals, diamonds, engineering goods, entertainment units, transportation, textiles and tourism. Industrial organisations put their loss in the vicinity of Rs 11, 000 crore. Wait, there is more. The figure will increase considerably if the non-life claims received by insurance companies are taken into account. Till April 11 they were supposed to pay to their clients Rs 167.3 crore for the losses incurred by commercial and industrial establishments. Then there are many who have lost their insurance documents. Gujaratis, both Hindus and Muslims, are known the world over for their business acumen. There are sickening reports of many minority business establishments, after having been targeted by mobs, thinking of shifting to safer areas — which means out of the state too. This may become unavoidable if the boycott campaign against them goes unchecked. But who will take the necessary preventive measures when realpolitik has blinded those controlling the levers of power? If the trends in Gujarat remain unreversed, their lengthening shadow may be seen in other parts of the country too. It is time for action. Dithering will be unforgivable.

Of hope & reality

MR Yashwant Sinha has once again lived up to his reputation for being an incorrigible optimist. He now sees a 7 to 8 per cent GDP growth rate within reach. When abroad, one can afford to forget the gloomy political situation and stark economic realities back home. Despite Gujarat casting its long shadow on the country’s political horizon and denting its image abroad, Mr Yashwant Sinha continues to see light at the end of the tunnel. There are some valid reasons for this, of course. The low inflation rate (1.5 per cent) is one. The comfortable position of foreign exchange reserves ($55 billion) is another. In the last four years India has added some $25 billion to its reserves. Agricultural growth is also picking up, giving a push in turn to industrial growth. Despite the slowdown, India has retained its position as the world’s fourth largest economy after the USA, China and Japan. Despite global recession last year, India was the only country, other than China, to register a growth in exports, even if only marginal. The performance of the IT sector is far from disappointing. The worst, it seems, is over. There are clear signals of recovery in the US economy. Foreign orders and investment, though still a trickle, may not take long to flow in.

So far so good. There is the other side of the picture. The most worrisome is the increase in the international oil prices. With the decontrol of petroleum prices in the country from April, the government will have to either shell out additional subsidy or pass the burden on to the consumer, which will raise costs-- individual, agricultural and corporate. Post-Godhra, the political situation in the country has turned volatile. Important economic business, including the Budget and the anti-money laundering Bill, is pending before Parliament, which has been rendered non-functional for over a week. Amendments to labour laws, which require cooperation of the Opposition, may have to wait for more time. Gujarat’s contribution to the GDP and taxes is bound to decline, apart from dampening foreign investment. The Enron debacle is another important roadblock to the FDI flow from the USA. Instead of mouthing platitudes and raising unrealistic expectations, Mr Sinha could have used the opportunity provided by his US-visit to allay foreign investors’ apprehensions, if any. When Mr Sinha returns home, he will have to address some domestic issues like the rising petro prices, the explosive cost of procuring and storing foodgrains, and urgently take up steps to translate his expectations into reality.

OPINION

The national security syndrome
A close look at the Indian ethos
R. S. Grewal

MARTIN Zuberi, while writing in the USI Journal (July-September 1999), makes a statement that the first nuclear weapon powers accumulated nuclear stockpiles before enunciating their nuclear doctrines. However, reversing this process, the Indian National Security Advisory Board has produced a consensus document even before the development of an Indian nuclear force. What he does not mention is that the proposed Indian nuclear doctrine has emerged even before the formulation of an Indian national security doctrine. Logically, the former should have emanated from the latter. The fact, which is more galling, is that no defence analyst or political commentator has highlighted this anomaly in any debate, analysis or review of this draft document. This could be attributed to typical disdain the Indians display towards matters related to national security.

In the international arena an Indian gets appreciated as a nice fellow who, instead of being aggressive about national interests, displays a lackadaisical attitude towards these; does not give as he gets; lets others walk all over him; and consequently, gets left behind in the race. His psyche is further exploited by vested interests within the country. Having been subjected to a feudalistic order for ages, he shows no inclination to challenge anything said or done by the powerful elite in the country. Consequently, the Indian public has failed to notice the bizarre feat of producing a “son” even before the birth of the “father” and that has been achieved by some of the most powerful names in the country’s security community. In India, what the elite propound is taken as the gospel, truth especially in the light of the centuries old Indian indifference to matters related to national security. This apathy affords unimaginable opportunities to the Indian elite to exploit issues related to national interests for extraneous purposes. It appears that one of the most difficult challenges to Indian security is the indifference of the Indian middle class towards this salient facet of nation building.

The Indian vehemently challenges the hypothesis that the country does not have a national security doctrine and, consequently, has grave strategic limitations. They maintain that India has had, in its typical, understated and perhaps ambiguous way, a national security doctrine for almost half a century. It has seen the country through periods of grave crisis. That the national policy is ambiguous, that it has not been codified in writing, in effect displays its strength rather than its weaknesses. They argue further that when the vast majority of the people know, almost intuitively, what the national policy is, should it necessarily be reduced to writing? They maintain that the ambiguity is really a problem of comprehension for people outside the purview of the “need to know”. On the other hand, it could be said that the ambiguity helps the privileged few among the Indian elite to further their narrow interests and guard their turf. It helps them distort or project salient issues related to national security to suit their designs.

With the vast majority of Indians displaying a lack of “sense of history”, they encounter no problems in manipulating national sentiment. India has been a “nation” in the modern sense of the word only during the Mauriyan empire, the Gupta Age, the era of the Mughals and while under British rule. Barring these periods in its long history, India has been a mass of seething, disunited fiefdoms lacking in continuity and coherence in matters of national security. Thus, it can be said that Indians have not been great strategic thinkers or developers of strategy, although they have been profound thinkers at many other levels. A common Indian views life as unpredictable and hence finds no use for strategy. He feels that as the future is unknown or unworkable, there is no need to plan. Vested interests in the Indian security community exploit this psyche.

The above syndrome affecting the Indian thought process pertaining to national security is disquieting and calls for urgent measures to reverse the trend. So far, the country has displayed its inability to view things dispassionately in an integrated manner and in a larger national perspective. It has fallen prey to the familiar Indian penchant for icon building, which has become an industry by itself. The national security community is no exception. There are numerous groups (call them think tanks), each headed by one or the other individual with the only agenda of perpetuating his hold as long as possible. They function like “private limited companies” in order to ensure complete hold over the finances and the administration of the organisation concerned. Various appointees are picked up on the basis of personal preferences of the ruling individual. The simple and only criterion is personal loyalty, not the intellect or allegiance to national interests. The flexible bureaucracy is fine-tuned to the system and faces no difficulty in playing along. Thus, the relation between the “icon” representing national security and the members of his organisation today is the same today as that between a king and his subjects. Any debate related to matters of national security is discouraged. Thus, national interests are of no consequence. No wonder, the national will has got diffused and is moving in different directions, giving the impression that the country is in a state of paralysis. The dimension of the decay is a sad pointer to the crisis of national ethos.

Today nation-states are slowly transforming themselves into knowledge-states. The European Union is one fine example where, instead of trying to establish a difference-free human society, an attempt is being made to employ knowledge-based differences as markers of distinction forgetting the constructed pasts and primordial traditions. The leadership has shown remarkable knowledge management skills rising above national levels. People everywhere want to move ahead. Given genuine leadership and access to knowledge, people start defining themselves in terms other than traditions and cultural ethos. The Indian society has long been stereotyped as hierarchy-submissive and unchanging, resulting in the archetypal of a renitent people occupying dominant status. A low level of literacy among the masses and an inadequate knowledge-base of the middle class are often cited as proof of societal stasis.

The size of the intellectually perceptive society is too small. Moreover, not only the masses but also much of the middle classes, and even segments of the elite, have had no insight into the rapid changes occurring at the international level that impinge upon national security. On the other hand, there is considerable fear among the Indian security establishment of open exchange of ideas. Such fears are largely harboured by sections of India’s elite that fear for their positions of power and those amongst the middle classes that are beneficiaries of the largesse bestowed on them. Both are concerned with protecting the existing framework of power, hierarchy and privilege. The security community in India, preoccupied with protecting its turf, has consistently under-emphasised this sociological problem that is likely to pose a grave security threat to the nation in the coming years. It must realise that keeping the public devoid of knowledge and, thus, quiescent cannot help India. Only their empowerment can.

Ironically, any debate on national security in the country invariably focuses on higher defence organisation, the country’s economic determinants, the defence budget, external threats, foreign policy, internal security dimensions and the nuclear, biological and chemical threat. The sociological problem outlined above gets very little attention.

In India, with its poverty of gargantuan proportions, deep-rooted social inequalities, the national and human security gains that could be derived from comprehensive empowerment are extraordinarily large. Empowerment, in itself, could be defined as the process of sharing power and providing an environment in order to encourage members of society to act in a responsible and mature manner and help in achieving national goals. The framework for empowerment encompasses strategy, organisation and culture with a common approach to knowledge sharing. Implicit in such a process is the approach to knowledge management. The latter implies finding answers to questions like why knowledge is required to be shared, what knowledge to share, with whom to share and when to share Management of knowledge also demands a continuous process of learning. Recent research has proved that highly skilled professionals avoid learning. They are invariably successful and hence do not know how to learn from failures. When their strategies go wrong, they become defensive, screen out criticism and identify reasons for failure away from themselves. Indian misadventure in Sri Lanka is a case in point. The failure resulted from the lack of clarity concerning the national security doctrine.

Successful leveraging of empowered people and knowledge management requires considerable implementation efforts starting from creating awareness to higher levels of maturity. Considering the neglect of these aspects as related to national security and their ambiguous nature, there is need for research to define the key concepts. The Indian security community that does not widely acknowledge the reality and the consequences of permitting an inward-looking, hierarchical structure totally isolated from society cannot hope to emancipate itself. It would have to address the grassroot levels to assess the reality.

There is need to bring about awareness among the public on matters related to national security and thereafter manage the knowledge base so created. This may help in the growth of the transformation capability of society. So far, there has been some acknowledgement of the seriousness of the problem, but it has not been addressed within the boundaries that frame security discussions. There is also need to bring about a paradigm shift in the national ethos relating to security. Society will have to break the feudalistic shackles and display a level of maturity. Challenging the views of the so-called “security experts” should not be treated as a sin or an act of treason.

The writer, a retired Brigadier, is Director, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Majitar.

MIDDLE

Thirtyfirst March academics
N. K. Oberoi

IN the month of March, the universities are suddenly abuzz with intellectual activity. The buzz is of the seminars which become national or international depending on who is going to deliver the keynote address, inaugurate or preside (It should not surprise you if you do not find a seminar which describes itself as local). What is your status as a celebrity in academia is decided by which of the above-mentioned roles you are invited to perform. The paper presentations are just the fillers allowed to be hastily gone through without much discussion for want of time. The discussion comes off better, it is announced by the organisers, during tea and lunch breaks.

Just as there is a rush of marriages in certain parts of the year and the availability of banquet halls, the band and the “ghori”, etc, becomes limited, the organisation of seminars suffers similar bottlenecks in the month of March. A friend of mine describes the March-end seminars as academic Shradhs, ie the time for paying obeisance to the dead. The ceremonial character of the seminars is far too visible, and is not allowed to be compromised even in the proceedings. The rituals of the seminar like offering bouquets, presiding and presenting papers and praising them are sometimes performed by 11 of the 15 persons who are the total audience. The funds are plentiful. So are the performers. But the audience scarcity, particularly after the inaugurals, poses problems. The academic entrepreneur would soon learn the lesson from the practising politician and earmark the necessary funds for arranging the audience, too.

Thirtyfirst March marks the closing of the year. A balance-sheet is prepared of what was stipulated and achieved to cover evasions and irregularities of all kinds in spending the grants. It is the same with the seminars. They are all packed up in the months of February and March spilling over into April sometimes because, it is argued by those concerned, the funding agencies do not release the grants earlier in the year. It may be a partial explanation but it hardly explains the major spending of these grants on air-tickets and taxi-fares of only the VIPs and VVIPs among the participants, not to say of the public relations, lunches, dinners and high teas for the occasion.

The discussions are only a marginal and ritualistic function of these seminars. The keynote addresses are kept out of the discussion gambit. The so-called discussion is summed up in the valedictory address by a celebrity who was not even present while it was going on. The seminar is segmented into many sessions. Three to four papers are listed to be read out. The tight scheduling of the presentation hardly leaves any time for the discussion.

These discussions are in the nature of talk-shows one finds now becoming a regular feature of all TV channels. They lack, however, the verve and excitement of the features like Big-fight. The talk-shows have replaced the debate in our public life. These seminars have done the same to our academic life.

This phenomenon has been described as “desperate initiation into empty form of value” which takes place at universities, considered sites for ideological — the social and the political— contest. These are the views of a French thinker who worked out the implications of takeover of our consciousness by virtual reality. These views were expressed in his essay, “The Last Tango of Value”. Tango, I know, is a Latin American dance with lewd sexual connotations. It involves the to-ing and fro-ing of the two dancers to the expiration of their last breath. Why he called the emptying of values a tango dance, I did not know. I know it now. And I must say I owe it to the thirtyfirst March buzz.

REALPOLITIK

Falling masks, failing tasks
P. Raman

THE National capital is in the thick of the worst kind of power play. Everyone who considers himself or herself as somebody claims to be a crisis manager or facilitator. You only have to send word to the right quarters about your ability for the mission. Everyone claims to know everything and yet no one seems to know what is really happening.

In this game of unpolished realpolitik, any tool is enough to gain political leverage. The opposition cannot do much because it can offer only distant dreams. Way back in ‘70s, Indira Gandhi had used the reshuffle threat to silence the detractors. Now Atal Behari Vajpayee’s operators are resorting to the same trick to bring round the protesting allies. Mamata Banerjee changes position every day depending on her Rail Bhavan dreams.

The minor allies are being hoodwinked with the threat of assigning lesser portfolios. This is done to accommodate new BJP leaders like Keshubhai Patel. Sharad Yadav and Ramvilas Paswan have been highly vocal about the Modi ouster. Most probably, the fresh threats will work wonders on them as well. Even Chandrababu Naidu’s position is not entirely unambiguous. The BJP managers assert that ultimately Naidu would not dare to disturb the Vajpayee government. If he does it, it would be on his own peril. They gleefully hint at what they call deals involving Naidu.

Despite such fluidity, two aspects of the present political crisis are noteworthy. First is the irretrievable erosion of Vajpayee’s well cultivated image. The other is the virtual paralysis of the entire system. True, party leaders still go to the PM house to formalise decisions. But the real decisions are being taken elsewhere. If the control of the party and government after Goa has been slipped out of Vajpayee’s hands, along with it the initiatives for the event management have also gone over to the small time operators and party minions.

This is what happens when the Prime Minister is turned into a prisoner of indecisions and wrong decisions. Emboldened by the events after the Goa coup d’etat, the minions who merrily market the hardline postures, have fully prevailed on Vajpayee. The former, rather in an immature way, boast about their prowess to make him accept any decision. On the eve of Goa, Vajpayee had used all his charm to plead with the hardliners to see reason. But even those whom he considered as his trusted aides had politely spurned his entreaties.

Vajpayee’s last argument was that the endorsement of the Gujarat line was a sure invitation to the collapse of the NDA government. But the predominant view was that none of the allies would stake the ministership, come what may. Even if a couple of them make noises, a firm handling would force them fall in line. Then there are Jayalalithaa and Mayawati to offer their support in return for affordable favours. Some did fear an exasperated Prime Minister would repeat his resignation threat. But he did not. Possibly he sensed the overwhelming support for the Modi line of party expansion through aggressive Hindutva.

The national executive’s economic policy resolution questioning much of the Vajpayee government’s Budget has been another jolt to Vajpayee. This was done without much of a debate. Since the hard Hindutva and soft economic policy have been identified as remedies for the BJP’s ills, even a serious discussion on the electoral debacles was found unnecessary. Thus Vajpayee found the siege complete. Hence instead of putting up resistance he simply went by the wave. After Goa, he once again pleaded for a tactical adjustment with Naidu on his main demands. But few listened to him.

The present mood in the BJP is that it should strive hard to retain the NDA government without compromising on hardcore Hindutva. If persuasion and compromises fail on the allies, let it be so. The BJP could still blame the constraints of coalition before returning to its moorings without the NDA baggage. The Vajpayee line all the while has been that since the BJP had got stagnated during the post-demolition period, coalition and cooption were the two instruments with which it could forge ahead. Therefore, the party should retain the coalition whatever may be the cost.

The BJP still needs Vajpayee with or without coalition as he has been with it for all these years. But it is also true that Vajpayee without Vajpayeeism will not be the same again. The whole Vajpayee project was conceptualised and marketed with a view to coopting the moderate sections. The other purpose was to raise him as an unassailable leader, an Indira-style vote-catcher. By unceremoniously rejecting the Vajpayee line, he has been deprived of both roles. When you abandon moderatism altogether, there is little need of a moderate face.

Sonia Gandhi might have been wrong when she said Vajpayee had lost his sense of balance. However, the frequency with which the PMO has been issuing contradictions and clarifications has been enough to indicate a disturbed mind. This can happen to all those who work under conflicting pulls and pressures where one does not know what position to take. Under such situations, even with best efforts, the inner self pours out. Like wrong dialogues coming out when one plays different roles.

The second aspect — the virtual paralysis of administration – has been equally disturbing. For about a month, the ministers were busy with the bitter internal tussles on the issue of tackling the Gujarat genocide. No serious business has been transacted after Goa. Adverse reports in the foreign Press about the massacre of Muslims and unsavoury diplomatic responses have dented the foreign relations. Political uncertainties and the consequent governmental instability have forced the foreign governments and investors to wait for a clearer picture. The government has not been able to convincingly reassure them.

Parliament has been functioning without a Speaker just because the ruling combine was not able to agree on a nominee. On the Speaker issue, Chandrababu Naidu has enough reasons to be sceptical. Two months are left to find out a new President when K.R. Narayanan’s terms ends. With the kind of confrontation with the Opposition and snapped communication with some of the allies, the BJP will find it a difficult task. The NDA does not enjoy a majority in the electorate. A defeat will mean a lose of face.

The economy, already under strain, is facing a double challenge. The stalemate in Parliament has put a question mark on the Finance Bill. Even if this is overcome — as has been done by consensus on some previous occasions – the BJP’s Goa resolution will cause serious problems for the Finance Minister. After advocating reform for five years, the BJP has suddenly discovered that its rout in recent elections has been mainly due to the middle class backlash on economic policy measures. Politically, as things stand today, either an uneasy peace with the allies without resolving the basic differences or a precarious dependence on those like Mayawati and Jayalalithaa can restore stability and confidence.

Of suicide, snakes & ‘An Unfinished Autobiography’

FOR days she lived in a room with an invisible snake, petrified by its slithering sounds at night. “Often at midnight, I started up from sleep at the sound of something pulling lengthwise, like a heavy rope,” writes Indian author Indira Goswami in “An Unfinished Autobiography”, an English-translation of her original in Assamese.

As she writes about her husband’s death: “Many years have rolled by since, but the colour of Madhu’s bones has not undergone any change. Only I have changed several of the caskets in which I have preserved them. . .” IANS

TRENDS & POINTERS

Want a boy? Don’t smoke

Couples wanting to conceive a boy should not smoke, scientists say.

New research reported by Japanese and Danish scientists in the Lancet medical journal today showed that couples who smoked around the time their child was conceived were less likely to have a son.

“If the father smokes more than 20 cigarettes a day and the mother does not smoke the sex ratio is significantly decreased with fewer boys than girls,” Prof Anne Grete Byskov of the University Hospital of Copenhagen, said in an interview.

If both parents smoke the chances of producing a male child are even lower. Byskov and Dr Misao Fukuda of the Fukuda Ladies Clinic in Hyogo, Japan, who conducted the study, are not sure why smokers produce fewer boys.

But they suspect that sperm carrying the Y. Chromosome for male children may be more susceptible than sperm with the female-forming X chromosome to the effects of tobacco which could make it less likely to fertilise the woman’s egg. Reuters

Women look fatter on TV

Television flatters men but makes women look fatter, according to research by psychologists at Britain’s University of Liverpool, who found that people’s necks look thicker on TV.

They investigated the differences between two-dimensional images and 3D pictures made using stereoscopic cameras. Bernard Harper and Richard Latto analysed 2D and 3D photographs of models and asked students to say which images looked heavier.

It has often been thought people look heavier on television. The team found there were differences in the way men and women appeared.

“With women, waist-to-hip ratio was accentuated most, while the necks of both sexes looked thicker,” New Scientist magazine reported.

“This made women appear fatter but gave men a stronger, hunkier jawline.

“It could explain why male TV and film stars often seem smaller and punier in real life,’’ added Harper. DPA

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

The basic testimony to the truth of reincarnation is of a purely intellectual order. It rests on the ability of the conception to give significance and meaning to what would otherwise be without either, and this is the only kind of evidence of any truth whether in the world of phenomena or the world of thought, which has ultimate value. It can be deduced from rigorous logic from the most elementary assumption of a moral order in the universe and without that assumption, there is not even a universe: there is merely a monstrous futility or a colossal nightmare.

— L. Stanley Jost, “Reincarnation and Karma, a spiritual philosophy applied to the world today” in Joseph Head and S.L. Cranston, (eds) Reincarnation: An East-West Anthology

***

If you are going to exist in eternity hereafter, it must be that you have existed through eternity in the past; it cannot be otherwise.

— The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. II

***

The law of Karma on which the doctrine of reincarnation is based is the cosmic law of cause and effect functioning on the human plane as a moral law. As we sow so we reap. Neither heredity nor environment, not even their interaction can explain the birth and growth of an individual. Further geniuses are born of mediocre parents, morons of normal parents, sane children of insane parents, wicked children of saintly parents. Only the law of karma can account for these anomalies. .... The prime factor in the origination and development of an individual is the individual himself, all else is subsidiary to him.

— Swami Satprakashananda, “How is a Man Reborn?”, Prabuddha Bharata, July 1970

***

O Arjuna, many are the lives I have passed through and thou too. But I know them all, whilst thou knowest not, O scorcher of foes.

— The Bhagavadgita